Journal of Psychiatry

How Humanistic Psychology Emphasizes the Positive Potential of Human Beings?

Andreas Thomas^* Department of Psychiatry, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
^*Correspondence: Andreas Thomas, Department of Psychiatry, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Email:

Received: 03-Apr-2023, Manuscript No. JOP-23-21141; Editor assigned: 06-Apr-2023, Pre QC No. JOP-23-21141(PQ); Reviewed: 20-Apr-2023, QC No. JOP-23-21141; Revised: 27-Apr-2023, Manuscript No. JOP-23-21141(R); Published: 04-May-2023, DOI: 10.35248/2378-5756.23.26.579

Description

Humanistic psychology is a perspective that emphasizes the uniqueness, dignity, and potential of each individual. It emerged in the 1950s as a reaction to the dominant approaches of psychoanalysis and behaviorism, which focused on unconscious drives and external stimuli. It stresses the importance of free will, self-actualization, and personal growth. It also applies humanistic principles to therapy, education, and personal development. It can be integrated with other perspectives in psychology in several ways. Combining humanistic ideas with cognitive techniques to assist clients in challenging negative thinking and forming positive self-beliefs is one of the potential approaches. Humanistic principles and existential themes are combined to investigate life's meaning and purpose and to help people deal with existential distress and uncertainty.

Some of the criticisms of humanistic psychology

• It is too hazy and arbitrary. Self-actualization, authenticity, and free will are just a few of the ideas that are challenging to describe, quantify, and scientifically evaluate. Humanistic psychology is criticized for lacking scientific validity and rigour.

• It is ignorant and overly hopeful. Humanistic psychology is criticized for ignoring the more negative aspects of human nature, such as violence, selfishness, and evil. They also dispute the effectiveness of humanistic psychology in addressing the intricate and varied issues that affect human civilization.

• It is too relativistic and individualized. Some detractors claim that humanistic psychology encourages an egocentric and subjective understanding of reality that disregards social expectations, values, and obligations.

There are various ways in which humanistic psychology is different from other psychological viewpoints. While other viewpoints like psychoanalysis and behaviorism place more emphasis on the unconscious motivations, environmental influences, and deterministic elements that affect human behavior, some of the primary points of comparison emphasize the subjective experience, free will, and personal development of each individual. While other approaches, such as cognitive and biological psychology, take a reductionist and nomothetic method that breaks down human behavior into its component parts and generalizes from groups to individuals, humanistic psychology adopts a holistic and idiographic approach to examining human nature. It relies on qualitative methods such as case studies, interviews, and content analysis to explore human phenomena, while other perspectives such as experimental and social psychology use quantitative methods such as experiments, surveys, and statistics to test hypotheses and measure variables.

An example of physiological growth is the increase in body size and organ size that occurs during the development of an organism. For instance, from birth to about age 1 or 2 years, human children grow rapidly in length or height and weight and their organs such as the brain, heart, and lungs also increase in size. It is influenced by various factors such as genetics, nutrition, hormones, and environmental conditions. It is usually measured by parameters such as height, weight, Body Mass Index (BMI), and organ volume. Physiological growth and development are related but not interchangeable concepts. Growth refers to the increase in physical characteristics such as height, weight, size, and organ volume whereas development refers to the qualitative changes in the structure and function of the organism that result in maturity and improved capacity. They contribute to each other, which are inseparable, and occur simultaneously. For example, as a child grows taller and heavier, he or she also develops motor skills, cognitive abilities, and social-emotional competencies. Similarly, as a plant grows longer and wider, it also develops flowers, fruits, and seeds.

It is the process of learning and adapting to new ways of functioning after experiencing a major stressor. It can be seen as a positive outcome of coping with stress, but it does not necessarily mean that the person is free from psychological distress. Some factors that can influence psychological growth are the type, intensity, and duration of the stressor, the person's personality, coping skills, social support, and self-perception of growth. Psychological stress can have negative effects on mental and physical health, such as anxiety, depression, headaches, sleep problems, and cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, it is important to manage stress effectively and seek professional help if needed.